History

Clinton Cemetery's First President, Thomas Belcher

When Clinton Cemetery Association was founded in 1844, there were only 26 stars in the American flag. John Tyler of Virginia was President and war with Mexico, although predicted by many, was still two years away. Washington, the father of our country, had been dead less than 45 years. Lincoln, defender of the Union, was still an obscure lawyer in southern Illinois. Today, much has changed. Life moves at a rapid pace. Events follow one another in bewildering succession. Yet there are some things which must never change. In 1944, when Clinton Cemetery observed its one hundredth anniversary, the Managers wrote: "The object at the inception was to establish an honored final resting place for the departed, and hold it sacred to their memory. This worthy object has been maintained." Clinton Cemetery has always been both an institution and a tradition. Organized to meet the needs of a rapidly growing community, it has served generation after generation with fidelity. Men of foresight founded Clinton. They, as well as their successors, built well. Their vision finds fulfillment today in Clinton's reputation as a place of dignity and beauty. Having served for more than a century and a half, Clinton is prepared for the future. Solid finances, sound management and dedication to tradition guarantee that our departed will sleep out the ages in peace. Tradition has it that Irvington was founded in 1692, although the first settlers may actually have arrived in the "valley of the Elizabeth River" a decade before that. For the next century and a half the people of Irvington, known as Camptown until 1852, buried their dead in the church graveyards at Newark, Orange or Connecticut Farms (now Union). Soon after Camptown became a stop on the stagecoach route from New York to Philadelphia, however, the sleepy village began to stir. In the 1830s Camptown contained "within a circle of a mile and a half in diameter, 75 dwellings, a free church of stone.... a Presbyterian church, one tavern, three stores, one saw mill and one grist mill, upon the Elizabeth River." An estimated 500 people, mostly farmers, lived within the present limits of the town of Irvington. By 1842 the village had grown sufficiently to make practical a local burying ground. A committee of five of the town's leading citizens, headed by Thomas Belcher, an industrialist and founder of Belcher Bros. Rule Co., and Samuel H. Gardner, who owned an iron factory in Newark, canvassed out-lying farms for a proper site. Eventually they selected a small field owned by the widow Phebe Blake. On July 27, 1842, Mrs. Blake conveyed 2.08 acres along the Elizabeth River to Thomas Belcher, Samuel H. Gardner, Allen Osborn, Alvah Sherman and Ithamar Bonnell as trustees of Clinton Cemetery Association. At a cost of $260.00 the trustees obtained a plot measuring 230 by 396 feet on the "road leading from Baker's Mills to Camptown," today's Union Avenue. Nineteen months later, on February 28, 1844, the State Legislature granted a charter to the Association empowering it to acquire not more than 10 acres of land as "burial places for deceased human beings." By law, the Association was to operate as a non-profit, nonsectarian mutual corporation of lot owners. Within a short time the first 24 sixteen-grave lots were sold for $5 each. In little more than a decade the original purchase (now located in the center of the grounds and designated as Section One) proved inadequate and an additional two acres were purchased from the Estate of Phebe Blake in 1856 for $581.70. Lots in the "New Ground," as Section Two was originally called, sold for $8 each. Between 1895 and 1964 six more acres were acquired, bringing the cemetery to its present size. Today Clinton Cemetery extends from Union Avenue to the Elizabeth River, between Yale and Lyons Avenues. Residential areas bound the grounds on all sides and New Jersey's major north-south route, the Garden State Parkway, provides easy access for visitors living outside of Irvington. To the first Board of Managers fell the task of laying out the grounds, engaging workmen and drafting rules for the management of the Association. Samuel Gardner, one of the founders of the Congregational Church, and Allen Osborn, a pillar of Trinity Episcopal Church, persuaded friends and associates to purchase lots in the cemetery. Alvah Sherman, a local storekeeper, and Ithamar Bonnell, a farmer, brought their own expertise to the new project. Thomas Belcher, the first President of the Association, guided the affairs of the corporation with a strong hand for eleven years until his death in 1855. After he died his colleagues on the Board of Managers praised him as "an efficient Member and the principal Manager." Under the presidency of the Rev. Isaac C. Goff, Clinton experienced a degree of prosperity. The minute book for 1857 reported that "The whole Cemetery, including both the old and the new, has been Fenced in, and a Carriage Track has been laid out, trees cut down, the land cleared. Forest trees transplanted and other like improvements made." Just a short time later conditions had deteriorated. "Numerous complaints have been made of the dilapidated condition of the grounds by the neglect of the Sexton," state the minutes for 1863. "Grass and Briars had covered the Lots and Avenues. Trees obstructed the Paths. Refuse, dirt and stones could be seen in all directions." The Board of Managers dismissed the caretaker and hired David Smith Terrill, a veteran of the Civil War who had worked for the Association as early as 1854. Terrill, who founded Irvington's first funeral home, remained as caretaker until 1874 when he resigned and was replaced by William Castles. "God's Acre is well taken care of by Mr. Castles," reported a local newspaper in 1888. "He has shown some pride and commendable taste in keeping the walks and lots in respectable appearance." That was the year that a flagstone sidewalk and wrought iron fence, both still in place, were constructed along Union Avenue. Under the leadership of Presidents Ira Meeker (1888-1907), Mahlon S. Drake (1907-1910), Thomas S. Osborne (1910-1924) and W. Clifton Terrill (1924-1964), new roadways were laid out and drains and a watering system installed. In 1925, an office was erected near the main entrance on Union Avenue. Clinton's magnificent heritage of greenery also dates from this period. The towering oak and tulip trees, the fragrant lindens, the ash, horse chestnuts and sassafras, to mention just a few, were planted then, along with a wide variety of ornamental shrubbery. On May 21, 1913, the Board of Managers took the most important step in Clinton's history, establishing a perpetual care fund for the future maintenance and embellishment of the grounds. All lots and graves sold after that date are automatically under a covenant of perpetual care, with 33% of the sales price currently being set aside for this purpose. To W. Clifton Terrill, who served as President of the Association for 40 years, goes much of the credit for the cemetery's prosperity. Edward Zesch, who served as Superintendant from 1934 to 1954, was President Terrill's strong right hand. A careful manager and dedicated cemetarian, Mr. Zesch was also active in the N.J. Cemetery Association, serving as its president in 1947. F. Everett Swackhamer, a member of the Board of Managers from 1956 to 1971 and president in 1970-1971, and Howard R. Day, a Manager from 1961 to 1967, shouldered much of the responsibility for guiding Clinton through the 1960s. The present Board of Managers consists of Alan A. Siegel, James H. Burster, Laura Jane Minnich and Lynne E. Van Savage. President of the Board of Managers since 1972, Mr. Siegel is an attorney whose ancestors settled in Camptown a generation before the cemetery itself was founded.

Elder Simon Clough, First Person Buried at Clinton Cemetery in 1844

Alan A. Siegel, President; 1972 to present

Oldest Map of Clinton Cemetery

Tradition

Irvington's only cemetery, Clinton is a directory in marble and limestone of the pioneers and builders of the community. According to Association records, the first burial was that of Elder Simon Clough, who died in 1844. His marker, now badly eroded, reads: "Elder Simon Clough. An Able Minister of the New Testament. Departed this Life at his residence in the City of New York May 20, 1844 Aged 44 years. He was a Christian." Others interred in the cemetery include: Cyrus Durand, the inventor; James Van Houten, a well-known banknote engraver; Henry O. Osborne, a Civil War veteran and village trustee in the 1890s; former Irvington Chiefs of Police Alexander Green, Thomas Kirkbride and Edward J. Oleksik; Fire Chiefs Jonah Hardgrove, Harvey Campbell and Harry V. Zigenfus; Joseph T. Castles, Louis Weidenbacher, George W. Frost, Joseph Walker and Louis C. Gleichmann, all of them long-time Irvington businessmen; Nicholas Weber, the real estate magnate; Judge Charles H. Stewart, president of the N.J. Automobile Club from 1928 to 1951; and Josiah L. Baldwin, a State Assemblyman. Others are: W. Clifton Terrill, town treasurer for 22 years; Abram Voorhees, tax assessor for 18 years before he retired in 1895; the Reverends Isaac Goff, James M. Tuttle, Cyrus B. Durand, John L. Chapman, Moses Cummings and James MacWhorter Bruen; Isaac Parse and M. Osborne Christian, two of Irvington's earliest physicians; Dr. Joseph L. Wade, humorist and founder in 1871 of Irvington's first newspaper; Alfred T. Sorgenfree, editor of the Irvington News; and three Grand Masons of N.J., the Rev. Henry Vehslage, Charles Belcher and Walter S. Gray. More than 500 veterans of American wars from the Revolution to the Korean Conflict rest in Clinton. Two soldiers of the War of Independence are buried here: Timothy Ball (1758-1828), a militia private who lived in what is now Maplewood, and Sears Roberts Sr. (1754-1847), who served in Capt. Neil's Eastern Company of Artillery. Camptown veterans of the War of 1812 include William Stockman, Cyrus Durand, Levi Gardner, Allen Osborn, Sears Roberts Jr. and eight others. Benjamin Eli Burr (1829-1898) saw action in both the Mexican and Civil Wars. The most famous of the more than one hundred Civil War veterans is Amos J. Cummings, a Medal of Honor winner who later served in Congress from New York. Cummings was also editor of the New York Sun and the New York Tribune. George Jefferson, one of the few blacks who lived in Irvington at the time, is buried in Section Two. A private with the U.S. Colored Troops, Jefferson was injured near Petersburg, Va. Clinton is a political directory as well: William L. Glorieux, John H. Van Cleve and Edward Folsom served as mayors of Irvington; Mahlon Stockman, Leonard Setaro, Harry J. Stanley, Francis S. Green, Henry P. Bedford, August Lacomb and Harry E. Stanley were commissioners. Moses Osborn, the first moderator of Clinton Townshipin 1835, is buried in Clinton as are many of the clerks, township committeemen, village presidents, trustees and town councilmen of every succeeding government. Newark Mayor Joseph Haynes, a teacher in Irvington when he was a young man, is also buried in Clinton. Haynes was Newark's chief executive from 1884 to 1894. Walter S. Gray, founding editor of the Irvington Herald and Essex County Supervisor for many years, is another of the more than 11,500 people buried in the cemetery. The weathered stones in Clinton Cemetery stand guard over the graves of the Drakes, Harrisons and Meekers, over the Days, the Englands, the Chandlers and the Tichenors, over the Baldwinand Stockman families, the Osbornes, Camps, Heddens, Carters and a thousand other families who built the town of Irvington and surrounding communities. The oldest legible stone on the grounds dates from 1816. Moved from the Old Cemetery in Maplewood, it marks the grave of "Phebe, wife of David S. Terrill & daughter of Briants & Prudence Durand, who died Dec. 3, 1816, Aged 21 Years & 6 Days." Carved by J.C. Mooney of Connecticut Farms, the red sandstone marker is in a state of near-perfect preservation. A willow draped urn, an allegorical symbol popular in the nineteenth century, depicts the serenity of death. The epitaph warns the reader of his inevitable fate:Remember me as you pass by; As you are now, so once was I. And as I am, so you must be; Prepare to die and follow me. The crumbling surfaces of the oldest gravestones warn of death, extoll the virtues of the dead and recount the personal tragedies that tried the souls of the people. When Phebe Terrill died in 1856 at the age of 94, her son chose a verse for her stone that could well serve as a memorial to all those buried in Clinton Cemetery:Farewell dear Mother, Though under this cold sod Thine earthly form is resting, Thy Spirit is with God.